Texas Tech Athletics Closed In on Making a Profit in 2015-2016

The Texas Tribune released a great database on Monday on university athletic departments in Texas. The data shows revenue and expenses for the 2015-2016 school year for the eight public schools that play in the FBS or Football Bowl Subdivision. The schools available to look into include Texas Tech, University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas State University, University of Houston, University of North Texas, University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Texas San Antonio.

According to the Texas Tribune, the athletic department received over $3.2 million in student fees and over $2.5 million from the university. However, that money is not included into the revenue totals that the athletics department submits to the NCAA.

According to the data provided, Texas Tech's athletic department operated with a loss in the 2015-2016 school year of $1,416,487. Student fees alone covered the loss. The athletic department revenue last year was just over $77 million dollars while expenses racked up to just over $78.5 million dollars.

No one will be surprised to learn that Texas Tech Football was the big money maker for Texas Tech in 2015-2016. Tech Football operated with a profit of just over $28.8 million dollars while generating over $46.8 million dollars. The only other program to make money last year? Men's Basketball. The Red Raider Basketball program generated over $8 million in revenue with a profit of $688,410 dollars.

No other athletics program at Texas Tech generated a profit for the 2015-2016 school year.

The only two athletic programs in the state that generated a profit were the University of Texas and Texas A&M. The program that operated with the biggest loss was the University of Houston. Their athletic program finished the year at a loss of over $25.8 million dollars.